


Preschool Blues

by emilywritesfics



Series: Murphy has a kid [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic, Single Dad!Murphy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:01:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26506360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emilywritesfics/pseuds/emilywritesfics
Summary: Murphy never thought that he'd have kids, but life had different plans when he ended up a father at 19. Now, two and a half years later, Murphy suddenly finds himself a single father and is left scrambling trying to figure out how to be a good parent.
Series: Murphy has a kid [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/461308
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Preschool Blues

**Author's Note:**

> This happens before Second Chances and It's a beautiful night, but can be read on its own.

Before having James, Murphy had had no idea how to raise a child. Actually, scratch that. Before Katrina had left them when James was two, Murphy had had no idea how to raise a child.

Murphy had assumed that Katrina would mostly raise James, and that Murphy would be the dad he spent every other weekend with, or something like that. It wasn’t because of gender roles or anything stupid like that, Murphy had just assumed that since he was fairly neutral on kids, Katrina seemed to want kids, and Murphy and Katrina  _ definitely _ weren’t getting together, that’s what would happen. Which is why he was very surprised when James’ daycare had called to tell him that they couldn’t get a hold of Katrina and could he please pick up James or find someone who could.

Murphy had picked up James from daycare, apologizing to the daycare workers, and brought him back to the apartment that Katrina shared with one of her friends while she was looking for a place of her own. He’d used the key she’d given him to get inside, and found that all of her belongings had been gone. When her friend got back, she hadn’t known anything.

After he’d figured that out, Murphy had freaked out a bit and called Bellamy. He couldn’t quite explain why he called Bellamy because the two of them weren’t even friends and it wasn’t like Bellamy could magically fix anything, but he was an elementary teacher so he had to know something about babies.

It had taken a few days, but with Bellamy’s help Murphy had figured things out. He felt like he had a decent idea of how to care for a toddler (because apparently James wasn’t a baby, like there was a difference), or, at the very least, a decent idea of how to not permanently screw him up.

Before Katrina had left, she had enrolled James in preschool in the fall, right before he turned three. Murphy only figured this out when he’d been forwarded a letter in the mail from the school. He had researched the school a bit because, after leaving them, Murphy no longer trusted Katrina’s judgement, but had concluded that it seemed like an alright place.

The first day of school was three and a half months after Katrina left, and James still didn’t seem to be over it. He still cried for her every once in a while, and, though Bellamy told him that James liked him just fine, James seemed to merely tolerate Murphy.

One of the parenting blogs Murphy had been reading recommended that Murphy take the first day of school off of work if possible, so Murphy had used one of his sick days to take James to his first day of school.

That morning, Murphy pulled himself out of bed and tried to get James and himself ready to leave. 

“I don’t wanna go to school,” James said when Murphy tried to put his pants on. James crossed his arms and sat down on the floor.

“But preschool is fun,” Murphy told him tentatively, hoping that the comment would help convince James.

“No,” James said.

Eventually, James did put his pants on and they went on their way.

Most of the parents at the preschool seemed to the soccer mom type that had always hated Murphy. He had to admit that some of that dislike was deserved, but a lot of it was simply the fact that he had been a troublemaker and he had looked like it.

Taking James into the school, Murphy got quite a few strange looks, which he was still getting used to. He knew that it was partly because of the aforementioned looking like a troublemaker, but it was also because he didn’t exactly look like the type of person to babysit, and he also didn’t look old enough to be a father.

While Murphy talked to one of the teachers and made sure everything was in order and that he knew what exactly was going on, James was uncharacteristically quiet. He looked around the room at all of the kids and all of the toys, but he didn’t try to go play with anything or talk to anyone as Murphy would have expected. When the teacher Murphy was talking to knelt down to talk to James, James hid behind Murphy’s legs.

“I swear he’s never like this,” Murphy said.

“You’d be surprised by the number of times I’ve heard that,” the teacher said.

James peeked around Murphy’s leg and the teacher smiled at him.

“Hi James,” she said, “I’m Mrs. Anderson.”

James darted back behind Murphy.

“What kind of toys do you like to play with?” Mrs. Anderson asked.

When James didn’t respond, Murphy replied, “you really like playing with cars at home, don’t you?”

James nodded.

“We have cars here,” Mrs. Anderson told James. “Do you want to play with those?”

James tentatively nodded.

“They’re just over here.” She stood up and walked over to them. 

James slowly came out from behind Murphy’s legs and followed his teacher, but stopped about halfway there and looked back at Murphy, then over at Mrs. Anderson and the cars.

“Do you want your dad to come with you?” Mrs. Anderson asked James, who quickly ran back to Murphy, grabbed his hand, and pulled him over to the cars. 

It took Murphy a long time to actually leave once school had started, because as soon as Murphy got up to leave, James burst into tears. Murphy's eyes widened and he sat back down next to James.

“Hey,” Murphy attempted, “it’s okay.”

James threw himself onto Murphy.

“Don’t leave, Daddy,” James sobbed.

“I have to,” Murphy said.

James only sobbed harder.

“But I’ll be back to pick you up this afternoon,” Murphy quickly added.

By this point, one of the teachers had come over.

“What’s wrong?” the teacher asked James.

James continued to sob into Murphy’s shirt.

“He doesn’t want me to go,” Murphy supplied.

The teacher gave Murphy a sympathetic look.

“What’s his name?”

“James.”

“Well, James,” the teacher said to James, who was now just sniffling, “how about we do this. Your…” she trailed off and looked up at Murphy.

“Dad,” Murphy said.

“Your dad,” the teacher said, “can sit in one of the adult chairs at the back, and you can join the class. Does that sound okay?”

“I’ll be right at the back,” Murphy said. 

James sat back and wiped his nose with his sleeve.

“You’ll be here,” James said.

“Yes,” Murphy said.

James agreed to that, and after a little while Murphy was able to slip out. 

That night Murphy texted Bellamy telling him that James had actually wanted Murphy to stay with him at preschool

**Bellamy:** I told you that the kid actually likes you.

**Author's Note:**

> [ You can find me here!](https://ruggedmurphy.tumblr.com/)


End file.
